Bucky Covington

The day after Bucky got the boot from American Idol, Sawyer Brown frontman/producer Mark Miller phoned him. He saw something we didn’t: With the right songs, the North Carolinian with the throaty drawl could sell everything — from the cheeky to the weepy. And he does, on Bucky Covington, his versatile debut. While we acknowledge his softer side, it’s the tracks with teeth-grinding bravado bubbling below the surface (”Back When We Were Gods”) or boiling over (”The Bible and the Belt”) that make us believers. Sing those hillbilly blues, son. B+

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